Rating:
Genre:
Rap
Release Date: 06/04/2002
Featuring material recorded over 1994-1997,
Company Flow's official full-length debut,
Funcrusher Plus, had a galvanizing effect on the
underground hip-hop scene. It was one of the artiest, most abstract
hip-hop albums ever recorded, paving the way for a new brand of
avant-garde experimentalism that blatantly defied commercial considerations. Musically and lyrically,
Funcrusher Plus is abrasive and confrontational, informed by left-wing politics and the punked-out battle cry "independent as f*ck." It's intentionally not funky and certainly not danceable; the beats are tense and jagged, and often spaced far apart to leave room for the MCs' complex rhymes.
Bigg Jus and
El-P's lyrical technique is so good it's sometimes nearly impenetrable, assaulting the listener with dense barrages of words that take a few listens to decipher. Even if this is all highly off-kilter, it's also a conscious return to
hip-hop on its most basic, beats-and-rhymes level; hooks or
jazz and
funk samples aren't even considerations here. The production is spacy and atmospheric, often employing weird
ambient noises and futuristic synths that clash with the defiantly low-budget production values. It's also quite minimalist, particularly on tracks like
"Vital Nerve," which is basically just a three-note synth line over a beat, and the classic
Indelible MC's single
"The Fire in Which You Burn," where
Co-Flow trades rhymes with
the Juggaknots over a skittering beat and sitar drone. Other tracks have sci-fi and conspiracy theory undertones; some are set in an
Orwellian dystopia, while some pointedly satirize corporate and capitalist greed. Yet there's also some straightforward realism, as on
"Last Good Sleep," a frightening domestic abuse drama.
Funcrusher Plus demands intense concentration, but also rewards it, and its advancement of
hip-hop as an art form is still being felt. It's difficult, challenging music, to be sure, and it's equally far ahead of its time.
~Steve Huey, All Music Guide
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